Ahmed Patel meets Salman Khurshid over issue of two Indians stranded in Iran

Ahmed Patel, political secretary to Congress president Sonia Gandhi, today said that he met External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid in Delhi to discuss the issue of two Indians stranded in Iran.

According to Patel, Khurshid said that the Centre was serious in resolving the issue and the matter has been taken at an appropriate level in Iran. Two Indians- Sanket Pandya (36) from Vadodara and Mohammed Hussain Khan, from Haryana, working with an India-based private company, had been allegedly confined to a guest house in Iran's Zanjan city by an Iranian private engineering firm since December 17. Their passports had been taken away by the firm since over a month following a business dispute with the company. On January 27, both of them were released and since then have been kept in a hotel in Tehran.

Talking to PTI over phone Patel said, "I met Khurshid in his office yesterday and provided him all the details of both these stranded Indians, who have been denied visa by the concerned Iranian authorities despite completion of all the required formalities by the Indian embassy located in Tehran, the capital of Iran." "Khurshid said the Centre is serious in resolving the issue and has taken it up at appropriate level in Iran," Patel said."The Indian government has requested Iran to send both the Indians back and asked their government not link up the matter to any other issue as none of them were involved in any unlawful activity in their country," the Congress MP said.

The employer, a Goa-based Power Engineers India Ltd had sent both of them to Iran on November 23 for the commissioning of a power generator in Zanjan city in Iran as per a signed contract between the Indian company and its counterpart. The family members of Sanket Pandya had recently met Patel and requested him to ensure their release.